The variety of gatchapon

[Sakurahime]

If you haven't heard of them, gatchapon are little pods that come with a little figurine or keychain in them that you get out of a gumball-machine type object. There are usually several of these machines in a group together; I've often seen them in certain department stores or in anime/manga shops. The item that you get is random to encourage people to keep putting money in to try and win the whole set. I think they exist in other countries - I've definitely seen similar ones in the UK before.
Mostly, I avoid them because I see them as a money drain, but I have bought a few of them in the past. It is kind of fun opening them, like a Kinder egg. The ones I've bought are a Hello Kitty daruma keychain, a small owl figure, and a small (about A5) plastic folder with a Cardcaptor Sakura design on it. I know there are hundreds of different kinds, and I was wondering which ones other people have seen/bought. Do you have them in your country, too, or is this a mostly Japanese phenomenon?

[Louie]

Actually Gachapon is not only limited in physical items. There are a few browser/android games that also have this feature. One good example are Japanese android apps like FGO (Fate Grand Order) and Kantai Collection (Kancolle). Believe it or not, people actually spend a lot of money in these games in the hope that they get "Rare" characters that will make their team stronger. I have a few friends that have spent hundreds of dollars (and yen) in these gacha games. Of course, whether you get something good or bad depends on your luck. Well fortunately, my friends were a bit lucky in their gacha rolls.

[minervasirius]

Gachapon, the money drainer for those who have so much money they don't know how to spend it. haha
I'm talking about In-app purchases from pc/mobile games.

[Sakurahime]

I didn't know about the virtual Gachapon, Louie, thanks! When it's an app, it really reminds me of gambling. Although, it's worse than gambling, surely, because you'll never get any money back, just more collections of pixels on a screen...

[Louie]

Make no mistake sakurahime, games with gachapon will drill a hole on your wallet. This is especially true if the game is good and since you want to become stronger and you would like to have more members, items, etc. on your account then rolling the gacha is a necessity. It's a hard habit to break because you can get addicted to it. If you really want to play these games, you should practice moderation especially when rolling the gacha. Here is one example of a game that uses this concept and people will really spend a lot of money for games like this. *cough cough* A note of caution, don't get too addicted and don't blame me

[Sakurahime]

So, is it like an RPG but with a gachapon mechanic for becoming better?
And don't worry - I have a lot of willpower!